Former public safety minister Vic Toews has been busy since leaving Stephen Harper’s cabinet. Toews has embarked on a new career as a lobbyist and a consultant, through a company incorporated by his common law wife while he was still a federal cabinet minister, iPolitics’ Elizabeth Thompson reports. Toews has been lobbying provincial officials, cabinet ministers and staff in Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger’s office on at least three separate issues. Toews began actively lobbying only two months after leaving the House of Commons. “I’ve got to make a living,” Toews told Thompson.

Canada’s efforts to boost competition in the wireless industry were left in disarray after the largest of the country’s new operators pulled out of a spectrum auction on the eve of bidding. Wind Mobile yesterday withdrew from the auction that began today after its principal backer, Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd., decided not to fund its bid.

The minister behind Quebec’s controversial values charter says it’s a moderate document that offers tailor-made secularism for his province. Bernard Drainville made the comments Tuesday in Quebec City just before public hearings began on the charter. Drainville reiterated that the minority PQ government will not back down on the proposed bill, saying he’s convinced it’s a necessity.

In U.S. politics, an excerpt from the new book, ‘HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton’ describes a “hit list” compiled by Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the waning days of the 2008 Democratic primary battle. Clinton aides developed a formal spreadsheet and points system for the list. The scale went from 1 to 7, with the low numbers going to those who stuck by Clinton and the higher numbers going to allies-turned-enemies, like the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

In France, citizens who voted for Francois Hollande because they thought Nicolas Sarkozy’s personal life was too operatic are suffering some sticker shock. The French president held his first news conference today since revelations last week of his affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet. Hollande told reporters he’d clarify the official status of his long-time partner, Valerie Trierweiler, who has been acting as France’s first lady, before a trip to Washington in February. Trierweiler, displaying a notable lack of French sangfroid, has been hospitalized since Friday for “emotional shock.”

In the pimp-my-official-stationery department, among Tony Clement’s stack of Christmas bills this year was one to pay back taxpayers for a second set of gold-embossed business cards that broke government rules. The Treasury Board president used his personal credit card to reimburse his department $195.98 for cards that were ordered back in 2011. The Jan. 8 payment was in addition to the $434 he reimbursed taxpayers last month for another set of forbidden gold-embossed cards.

Finally, the end of an era for the cyber smoking gun? What if Nigel Wright or Chris Christie’s minions had used Snapchat? We’d have no “good to go” email…no “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”… If there’s one innovation that has the potential to shake up politics in 2014, it’s the arrival of new “erasable Internet” technologies, surmises The Washington Post.